I would scratch Lucic tomorrow. Insert Simon where Leivo was. Move Leivo down to the third or fourth line. Everything else seemed fine honestly, they just need to keep their foot on the gas.
Yeah, but even the best players in the world need to have support. Gaudreau has been stapled to Monahan for pretty much the entirety of his career. Nothing against Sean, but being paired with the same player, who is objectively not on your level, and requires a lot of help in terms of carrying the play, takes its toll. You can see how his frustration has built up over the years. Monahan is a fine player but you want your superstars to have someone they can call their peer who can keep up with the elite pace and skill (or at least close to it). Remember how Johnny looked back at the world cup alongside guys like Mackinnon?I think its your blatant bias towards Gaudreau that bothers me the most. Hes the most skilled forward on either team, imo, and until he quits playing like a 15 year old in the NHL, it won't matter who he's with. He's the guy that player should be put with to get going, not the other way around. Continually attacking an, all be it lesser player, that should be more than sufficient to complement a player of his stature and has in the past, is counter productive.
No worries my friendMy apologies, tough loss. There are far worse posters than you around here.
I have an opinion:
Good NHL lines require footspeed.
Speed down the middle, and speed down at least one wing.
You can have the other winger be slow if they're going to be the trailer, but that's the extent of it.
As for size? Yes, you need some, because you need a winger who can win a board battle and hit the centre or opposite winger with an outlet pass.
So let's look at our effective top line:
Tkachuk - Lindholm - Dube
Why does this work?
You have Tkachuk who can win a board battle and hit Lindholm or Dube with the breakout pass.
You have Dube who can push play forward
You have Lindholm who can keep up with the play, even though he typically doesn't drive play.
Now let's look at our arguable best line in last year's playoffs
Lucic - Bennett - Dube
You have Lucic who can win a board battle and hit Bennett or Dube with the breakout pass. Though he is prone to strange gaffes.
You have Dube who can push play forward
You have Bennett who can keep up with and drive the play.
That's why this line worked.
Now let's look at the other three lines Geoff Ward somehow thought would work tonight:
Gaudreau - Monahan - Leivo
You have Monahan who can win a board battle and hit Gaudreau with the breakout pass. However, this does not happen, because as a centre, he is not positionally supposed to be engaging in too many battles along the boards. He's utterly wasted.
You have Gaudreau who can push play forward
You have Leivo who... is neither a centre nor speedy. And didn't even look coordinated today.
Mangiapane - Backlund - Ryan
You have Ryan who cannot win a board battle and cannot hit Backlund or Mangiapane with the breakout pass.
You have Mangiapane who can push play forward
You have Backlund who can keep up with and drive the play.
Nordstrom - Bennett - Lucic
You have Lucic who can win a board battle and hit Bennett or Dube with the breakout pass. Though he is prone to strange gaffes.
You have Nordstrom who cannot push play forward, and generally was the worst player among the 24 skaters who were on the ice today.
You have Bennett who can keep up with and drive the play.
It just baffles me that our coach thought any of these three lines were a good idea.
At least Ward tries a ton of things to confirm they don't work. That's better than a bunch of previous coaches that try nothing new when the lines are confirmed not to work or on a cold streak.
You're right, trying things is better than not trying things.
Yet Gaudreau and Monahan are still glued together, Lucic is still a staple on the PP, and Bennett is still grossly underutilized in every situation.
It's just lipstick on the same pig.
I mean over the last two calendar years, he didn't just play with Monahan, he played on a line with Monahan and Lindholm. If he needs better than that, in order to produce, then he's probably not the star, that some of us think he is. The guys you listed, lacking support, still lead their teams in scoring, with far lesser player and were undeniably the best on their teams. I don't think we can say the same for Johnny, at least recently, without room for realistic debate. I believe Johnny's biggest problem, is Johnny and his paralyzing fear of contact. He literally will only play on less than 2/3rds of the ice, resulting in very one dimensional and dare I say, predictable play. Its very similar to the struggles that Europeans have when coming to the smaller ice surfaces in NA, except he's doing it to himself.Yeah, but even the best players in the world need to have support. Gaudreau has been stapled to Monahan for pretty much the entirety of his career. Nothing against Sean, but being paired with the same player, who is objectively not on your level, and requires a lot of help in terms of carrying the play, takes its toll. You can see how his frustration has built up over the years. Monahan is a fine player but you want your superstars to have someone they can call their peer who can keep up with the elite pace and skill (or at least close to it). Remember how Johnny looked back at the world cup alongside guys like Mackinnon?
You can't ask your star players to do it alone for such an extended period of time, especially when it continues to result in failure that is ultimately blamed on said star player.
Crosby and Malkin
Kane and Toews
Getzlaf and Perry
Henrik and Daniel
Datsyuk and Zetterberg
Kucherov and Point/Stamkos
Ovechkin and Backstrom
McDavid and Draisaitl
Bergeron and Marchand
Then you look at stars like Eichel, Gaudreau, Tavares in NY, Panarin in CLB, Hall in NJ who really don't have that counterpart. And you quickly see how frustrated they become over time.
I just don't know what the coaching staff expects Gaudreau to do with Monahan and Leivo as his linemates. It's been thoroughly demonstrated over the last 2 calendar years that Gaudreau and Monahan no longer work as a pair. I'm sure he'll still find a way to create some offense, but you want to set your best players up for success, and it's clear they have no intention of doing that. When your elite players are successful, typically your team will be as well.
No worries my friend
Stating the obvious but that Lucic contract is painful. He really has no business on the PP
I agree. Markstrom wasn't forced into making any difficult saves other than the goals and that weird adventure he went on in the 3rd. This was more of a situation where we killed our own momentum rather than the Jets doing anything impressive.The other part that I noticed was that while the score didn't really reflect it, I felt like the second and third was more even than many of you feel. One goal came off of a 3x flub in front of our net. The other came off of a 3 on 5 penalty. I'm going to go with that much of the play in the 2nd and 3rd was relatively equal against the Jets who are also shaking off a ton of dust. I mean, it's the opening game curse. The fact we got a point out of it is pretty damn huge.
A stick lift that ends up with the guy scoring.. right.
Gaudreau made the mistake, but that doesn't make my statement any less true.
Monahan made a great hustle play with speed to get back and make the defensive stop. It's not his fault Laine was able to rip one top shelf from in his feet lmao. The things people do to hate on Monahan...The mental gymnastics you do to find ways to bitch about Monahan is astounding. It's embarrassing.
Neither Monahan nor Lindholm are play driving star players in this league. Lindholm's career high in points was 45 before coming to Calgary.I mean over the last two calendar years, he didn't just play with Monahan, he played on a line with Monahan and Lindholm. If he needs better than that, in order to produce, then he's probably not the star, that some of us think he is. The guys you listed, lacking support, still lead their teams in scoring, with far lesser player and were undeniably the best on their teams. I don't think we can say the same for Johnny, at least recently, without room for realistic debate. I believe Johnny's biggest problem, is Johnny and his paralyzing fear of contact.
He literally will only play on less than 2/3rds of the ice, resulting in very one dimensional and dare I say, predictable play. Its very similar to the struggles that Europeans have when coming to the smaller ice surfaces in NA, except he's doing it to himself.
It literally does not matter who he plays with, he will always lead the rush because he will not dip inside our blueline very often. Of course he enters the offensive zone by himself....he has a half an ice length head start.
Defensemen just take away the middle of the ice because they know he's stopping above the hash marks and looking cross seam for trailers.
Until he changes the way he plays and is willing to do the little things, that help his team win, he'll struggle to find the success, that a player of his caliber should have.
If we aren't going to let kylington play defense can we scratch Lucic and let him try playing wing? At the very least he can skate at an nhl level which Lucic can't.
You have to fire Ward first.
He has a thing for Lucic
I honestly believe if you fire Ward, Lucic would quit. That alone is worth it.
Bennett is back with Lucic and Nordstrom at the practice and Ryan is on Backlund's wing again.
Ward is such a Mickey Mouse coach, so sick of that guy.